1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a beamforming module, a beamforming method, an ultrasonic imaging apparatus, and a method of controlling the ultrasonic imaging apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus is used to acquire a sectional image of various tissues or structures inside an object, for example, a human body, such as a sectional image of soft tissues and an image of blood flow using ultrasonic waves. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus is relatively small in size, inexpensive, displays an image in real time, and is inherently safe as there is no radiation exposure as in an X-ray imaging apparatus, and thus, has been extensively used for diagnosis of, for example, a heart, an abdomen, and a urinary system and in obstetrics and gynecology.
The ultrasonic imaging apparatus radiates ultrasonic waves toward a target region of an object and collects ultrasonic echo signals reflected from the target region to acquire an ultrasonic image based on the collected ultrasonic echo signals. To this end, the ultrasonic imaging apparatus performs beamforming to estimate a size of reflected waves of a predetermined space from a plurality of channel data based on the ultrasonic echo signals collected by an ultrasonic probe. Beamforming is a process including compensating for a time difference between ultrasonic waves input through a plurality of ultrasonic sensors, for example, transducers, applying predetermined weights to respective input ultrasonic signals, i.e., beamforming coefficients, to emphasize a signal at a predetermined position and to relatively attenuate a signal at another position, and focusing ultrasonic signals. Through beamforming, an ultrasonic imaging apparatus may generate an ultrasonic image suitable for examination of an internal structure of an object and display the ultrasonic image to a user.
Beamforming techniques may be classified into two categories, data-independent beamforming and adaptive beamforming, according to a beamforming coefficient used therein. The data-independent beamforming uses a weight that is determined regardless of an input ultrasonic signal. The adaptive beamforming determines an appropriate weight based on the input ultrasonic signal. Thus, according to the adaptive beamforming, weighting may vary in accordance with the input ultrasonic signal.